Three days after communal strife in UP’s Kasganj claimed a life and led to violence, the Yogi Adityanath government shunted out district police chief Sunil Kumar Singh, even as director general of police OP Singh shot off directives asking the police to deal firmly with mischief mongers.

The action came soon after Uttar Pradesh governor Ram Naik described the Kasganj clashes as a ‘kalank’ (blot) on the state and asked the government to ensure there was no recurrence.

Immediately after the remarks, the government issued marching orders to Sunil Singh, the superintendent of police (SP) of the trouble-torn district.

Singh was made to swap places with Piyush Srivastava, who was the SP of Police Training School, Meerut, till now.

“Prompt and impartial action should be initiated against those who foment communal trouble,” the DGP said in his missive to all district police chiefs.

“It should be found out which group was instigating trouble and action must be initiated against it immediately,” the DGP said after the state’s police drew flak for the manner in which Kasganj continued to witness acts of arson since the clashes broke out last Friday.

The opposition parties in the state, including the Congress, Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, had also stepped up the offensive against the Yogi government. Even the Shiv Sena, the BJP’s ally at the Centre, had demanded the resignation of the Adityanath government for what it called the failure to save “Hindu lives”.

Some BJP leaders admitted that Adityanath was not happy with the manner in which the clashes were handled.

The DGP’s directives to the police force to get their act together are being seen as a result of Adityanath disapproval.

On Sunday, BJP spokesman Alok Awasthi had also admitted ‘intelligence’ failure as the reason for the flare-up, even as UP’s agriculture minister Surya Pratap Shahi blamed opposition parties for fuelling discontent.

The DGP, in his directive, also asked the police to put up an effective intelligence gathering network in place.

He stressed on the importance of peace committee meetings to thrash out issues between two communities in areas affected by communal trouble.

BJP leader Chandramohan, however, said the government had acted firmly in the incident. “The guilty won’t be spared. Investigations are on and we assure you that the guilty won’t be able to get away,” he said.